THE TIGER ISSUE MARCH 2020 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE LEICESTERSHIRE & RUTLAND BRANCH OF THE WESTERN FRONT ASSOCIATION CHAIRMAN’S COLUMN Welcome again, Ladies and Gentlemen, to the 100th edition of The Tiger! Having written in my previous column of the many changes to European geography one hundred years ago, it is only proper that my attention this month focuses on our own personal centenary – our 100th Branch Meeting and the corresponding issue of our Newsletter. Since our inception in October 2011, the loyal support we have received from you, our Members, has enabled the Committee to build the Branch to its present level and promote our cause to great effect. Some readers, I know, have printed and kept copies of all the editions and I’m sure they will agree that a review of the earlier editions in comparison to our more recent numbers illustrate how much The Tiger has grown in stature across the nine calendar years of its existence to become a respected mouthpiece for the Branch, with a wide readership across both our Counties and beyond. I also remember from those early days the sceptism expressed by one particular party as to “whether sufficient material existed to produce a Newsletter every month” and the reassurance that this would not be problematic. 99 issues later we are still going strong! From the compliments our Newsletter receives, it is apparent that it is not only the content, but the way that content is presented, that appeals to our readers. It is therefore time to congratulate our Newsletter Editor, Valerie, for nine years of sterling service and to recognize her dedication and the time and effort she invests in assuring The Tiger is always of the highest possible standard. I, of course, see at first hand exactly what the production of The Tiger involves, from its compilation, printing (in a limited number of cases) and distribution and I am certain all readers will join me in thanking Valerie for her dedication to the cause. Thanks too must also go to all our contributors, both regular and periodic, for their continued flow of articles which both educate and entertain our readership. Their willingness to share their research and interests with both Members and readers is very much appreciated. Another anniversary to fall in 2020 is the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Western Front Association itself back in 1980. I will be attending the latest Branch Chairman’s Conference in London shortly after you receive this Newsletter in the hope that this will be a less tempestuous occasion than the last Annual General Meeting, when the debacle of the sale of the Butte de Warlencourt was uppermost in everyone’s thoughts. I will travel with an open mind, hoping to find that the Working Committees set up after that Meeting have been allowed to function as intended and have therefore produced a blueprint to lead the Association forward into the future. I shall, of course, report back to you all in due course . In the meantime, please continue to enjoy both our own Branch Meetings and The Tiger, as we enter our own personal “second century” of remembrance. As I have said many times before your continued support and participation enables us not only to survive, but to thrive, as we have already proven by reaching our own centenary. Long may we continue! D.S.H. 2 PARISH NOTICES FORTHCOMING BRANCH MEETINGS The Elms Social & Service Club, Bushloe End, WIGSTON, Leicestershire, LE18 2BA 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. (Approx.) CHANGE TO THE ADVERTISED SPEAKER 24th February 2020 Guest Speaker: Jed Jaggard Arming Tommy and Jack A debut visit to the Branch for our highly-regarded Speaker, whose “hands-on” approach to his subject will both educate and entertain . 30th March 2020 Guest Speaker: Ross Beadle There was more to it than Tanks: Cambrai, 20th November – 8th December 1917 Whilst the Battle of Cambrai certainly marked the first large-scale, effective use of tanks in warfare, this is only part of the story of that action, as Ross Beadle, making a welcome return to the Branch, will explain . 27th April 2020 Guest Speaker: Professor Stephen Badsey The German Corpse Factory: The Strangest War Propaganda Story The story of the German Corpse Factory is often regarded as the prime example of the falsehood of British wartime propaganda. Tonight, Professor Badsey seperates the facts from the fiction of this controversial tale . 3 OTHER DATES FOR YOUR DIARY . BARKBY FOOD AND CRAFT FAIR SUNDAY Church View Nursery rd 23 Queniborough Road FEBRUARY Barkby LE7 3QJ 2020 Copies of Dr Karen Ette’s novel “Don’t Be Late in the Morning” will be on sale (see Pages 9 & 10 for further details) SATURDAY ADVICE OF CANCELLATION 14th MARCH HISTORY 2020 AND HERITAGE SHOW 2020 SATURDAY AT RISK WAR MEMORIALS 21st MARCH OPEN DAY 2020 The Chancel, Rear of All Saints Church, Highcross Street, Leicester 11.00 A.M. – 4.00 P.M. Visit www.atriskwarmemorials.co.uk for further details 4 “REMEMBRANCE” A Bill Brookman Play SATURDAY 21st MARCH 2020 7.00pm Woodhouse Eaves Baptist Church Main Street Woodhouse Eaves LE12 8RZ £10 on door (£5 young people, £20 family group) BILL BROOKMAN PRODUCTIONS Ltd. 38 Alan Moss Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 5LX Office: 01509 236175 [email protected] www.BillBrookman.co.uk/Foundation Friends of Welford Road Cemetery ANZAC Day Service FRIDAY Welford Road, Leicester 25TH APRIL LE2 6BF 2020 10.30 A.M. for 11.00 A.M. (Meet in the Cemetery Visitor Centre by 10.50) Visit www.fowrcl.org.uk for further details YOUR BRANCH WILL BE IN ATTENDANCE 5 A FALLEN (TUDOR) ROSE OF NO MAN’S LAND by David Humberston Readers of The Tiger will, no doubt, be familiar with the ties between Leicestershire and the founding of the Tudor Dynasty in Auguist 1485, with the defeat of King Richard III at Bosworth Field by the Lancastrian pretender, Henry Tudor. A further link to the illustrious House of Tudor can also be found in our County, with a direct descendant of the maternal grandmother of King Henry VII, the victor of Bosworth Field, commemorated for her service in the Great War. Margaret Beauchamp, born around 1410, was a wealthy heiress whose first husband, Sir Oliver St John, died in 1437 leaving a widow and seven children. Her second marriage, to John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, produced a daughter, Margaret Beaufort (the Barbara Esmee St John future mother of Henry Tudor) but a direct descendant of her eldest son by Sir Oliver St John (13 times great granddaughter to be precise) is Barbara Esmee St John, the subject of this article. Born in September 1885, Barbara St John was the second and youngest daughter of the Reverend Henry Beauchamp, once of Holy Trinity Church, Ashby De La Zouch, but from 1914 at the Church of St Mary the Virgin at Ninfield in Sussex. Barbara would serve in the 112th Sussex Voluntary Aid Detachment and serve for a year at the 5th General Southern Hospital at Southsea before being sent abroad to the 26th General Hospital in Étaples, 16 miles south of Boulogne.. An old fishing town and port, Étaples lay on the coast at the mouth of the River Canche and became the site of the largest Army Camp ever established by the British Army, which was built alongside the railway line that ran adjacent to the town. With the beginning of the Battle of The Somme in July 1916, Barbara St John soon found herself, according to the British Journal of Nursing “in charge of a surgical ward of thirty-five beds with occasional stretcher cases in addition, working a thirteen hour day, with only a young orderly of seventeen to help her. A Sister looked in to help when necessary”. Overworked in the circumstances, Barbatra St John succumbed to scarlet fever on 4th October, her Matron-in-Chief’s War Diary recording that, three days later, “a Miss St. John, VAD, had been sent to 14 Stationary Hospital” at nearby Wimereux. Further Diary entries for 12th & 13th October conclude the affair: Wartime Étaples: 26th General Hospital is 12.10.16 ringed in red DDMS Boulogne, telephoned, informing us of somewhat sudden death of Miss St. John, VAD, at 14 Stationary Hospital suffering from scarlet fever. She had been admitted on the 6th. The night before she had developed certain heart complications but was not very ill, but during the night she became worse and died next day. Funeral was tomorrow but owing to nature of illness it was not considered advisable that it should be delayed in any way to enable the relations to attend. 6 13.10.16 Went with Miss Hill, VAD, to Boulogne, to attend the funeral of Miss St. John, VAD. In consequence of being delayed on the road, only arrived in time to hear the Last Post being sounded. Barbara St John actually rests in Wimereux Communal Cemetery, where she was buried with full Military Honours. Her headstone is one of many in that Cemetery laying flat to the ground, as can be seen right. Although the cause of her death was given as “paralysis”, the British Journal of Nursing also commented that: “We have often criticised young women not thoroughly trained being given responsibility for which they are not sufficiently experienced . this sad death points out that the more conscientious the woman the greater the strain upon her physically and mentally. The conditions described, under which she worked, would tax the resources of a highly experienced Nurse”.